he condition of
the Gipsies and their children, whose condition is herein feebly
described, and whose cause I have ventured to take in hand, praying them
to adopt measures and to pass such laws that will wipe out the disgrace
of having so many thousands of poor, ignorant, uneducated, wretched, and
lost Gipsy children in our midst, who cannot read and write, on the
following grounds--

First. Their Indian origin, which I venture to think has been
satisfactorily proved, and over which country our Queen is the Empress;
consequently, our Gipsies ought and have as much need to be taken in hand
and their condition improved by the State as the Thugs in India have
been, with such beneficial results, a class similar in many respects to
our Gipsies.

Second. As the Government in 1877 passed an act, called "The Canal Boats
Act," dealing pretty much with the same class of people as the Gipsies
and other travelling children, they ought, in all fairness, to extend the
principle to those living in tents and vans.

Third. As small-pox, fevers, and other infectious diseases are at times
very prevalent among them--a medical officer being called in only under
the rarest occasion--and as the tents and vans are not under any sanitary
arrangements, there is, therefore, urgent need for some sort of sanitary
supervision and control to be exercised over their wretched habitations
to prevent the spread of disease in such a stealthy manner.

Fourth. As the Government took steps some three centuries ago to class
the Gipsies as rogues and vagabonds, but took no steps at the same time
to improve their condition or even to encourage them to get upon the
right paths for leading an honourable and industrious life, the time has
now come, I think, both in justice and equity, for the Government to
adopt some means to catch the young hedge-bottom "Bob Rats," and to deal
out to them measures that will Christianise and civilise them to such an
extent that the Gipsies will not in the future be deserving of the
epithets passed upon them by the Government for their sins of omission
and commission.

Fifth. By passing an Act of Parliament, as I suggest, or amending the
Canal Boats Act, in accordance with the plan I have laid down, and
embodying the suggestions herein contained, the Government will complete
the educational system and bring under the educational and sanitary laws
the lowest dregs of society, which have hitherto been left out in the
cold,